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What are people saying about the Passport Max by Escort Radar?

The Passport Max by Escort is marketed as a radar which can help you avoid speeding tickets. It has an integrated GPS receiver, and, understanding the criticisms of this class, Escort engineers made notable strides in this model’s ability to detect false alerts. The Passport Max allows you to mark your own false positives and remove them if they turn out to be real. This feature is called SmartMute. However, advanced signal-processing is one of the keys which help reduce false alerts in the first place. The radar utilizes an FPGA and an ARM chip to convert the analog signal into digital form. Escort compares this to signal processing used by NASA to filter background noise from weak signals transmitted by satellites.

The Escort Passport Max has a similar but non-identical design compared to the Escort 9500ix. The U-shaped layout for the buttons differs from previous Escort radars, and buttons on the Max are recessed.

The high-definition simple OLED interface alerts you with either a robo-voice, Escort tones or chimes. At the display’s far left is where you see your vehicle speed and it has an adjustable backlight level and color control to optimize daytime/nighttime viewing (The OLED colors are red, blue, green, amber). Novice mode gives you just the basics to nix the possibility of an unwanted configuration.

Overall, CNET reviewer Antuan Goodwin reviewed the Passport Max for a few weeks and found it was more sensitive than Escort’s previous generation of detectors. He also says the nearly $550 price tag is justified. As you can expect it’s pricier than its predecessor, the Passport 9500ix, which is around $470, or the low $400’s on Amazon.com

Quote from cnet.com: With its Variable Speed Sensitivity, the Max is also able to tailor its sensitivity to the sort of driving the vehicle is actually doing. At highway speeds, it can optimize for long-range sensitivity, while at slower speeds, the sensitivity can be adjusted to tune out more false positives, since you’re not at risk of getting a speeding ticket.

Caveats and where to ask questions: The Escort Live smartphone app (iPhone or Android) is not included in the $549.95 retail price. It costs around $50 per year extra (for the premium features) and the SmartCord Live that goes with it is a one-time extra expense of around $40. For more information, connect with Escort Radar on Twitter.